Summertime Product Care

While each season brings its own benefits and challenges, summer is especially challenging in the bath, body, and candle world. The heat and sun may be beneficial for our mind and our spirit, but it is an artisan natural skin-care maker’s nightmare. The reason: Natural skin-care melts. It melts because we use real ingredients without synthetics, and one of the reasons synthetic additives are usually included is to prevent melting.

So, what can you do when you don’t want to ditch your natural products, but you also don’t want a goopy mess? Here are some steps you can take to protect your product investment:

For Body and Face Butters: During the warm summer months, your body and face butters will probably be fine if you leave them in a general room-temperature environment, but if the place you’re storing them is above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, you should keep them in a refrigerator. If you’re temporarily going to be traveling with these items (just a couple of hours), then you should freeze the body/face butters first. If they will be in a prolonged heated environment, without access to a refrigerator, then they must stay in a cooler with ice packs.

For Soy Candles: Soy candles have a lower melting point than other waxes, which make them more susceptible to extreme heat. In most circumstances, your candle will be fine with some extra heat and will re-solidify, but for extreme circumstances, the heat can cause the candle to “sweat” or “reject the fragrance.” This looks like it has liquid coming out from the top of the candle. To fix this, first take the candle out of the heat and bring it to room temperature. Next, grab a heat gun (a hair dryer works if you don’t have a heat gun) and melt the top of the candle evenly. Once it’s evenly melted, leave the candle in room temperature to re-solidify, and that should fix the problem. (Side note – this fix will also work if your candle happens to not be melting evenly.)

For Lip Balms and Salves: Assuming these items are in a pot-type of container, if they start to melt, all you have to do is stick them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Take them out and return them to room temperature and they will be just fine. Packing them up for travel? Then keep these guys in your carry-on or in a cooler.

For Bath Bombs: These can be very tricky! If they are in a hot environment where there’s humidity or moisture, it may set off the “bomb” too early and ruin the product. If you notice the bomb beginning to sweat, be sure to grab it and stick it in the fridge or freezer. You can leave them there until you’re ready to use it, or you can return it to a regular room temperature.

For Essential Oils and Essential Oil Blends: You really want to do your best to keep these out of a heated environment as good preventative practice because an extra heated environment will change the chemical structure of essential oils. If you need to travel with them then keep them in a carry-on or a cooler. Unfortunately, these can’t really be fixed once they’ve been overheated.

For Handcrafted Soap: Most soap can withstand pretty high temperatures. The most you may notice is some sweating. If the temperature is super-intense, your soap may begin to melt. You can go ahead and pop these in the fridge and they will be good-as-new.